…and then something unexpected happened. — This week, I accidentally sent a sexually explicit text to my employer. She is one of my tutoring clients, the mother of one of my students. I have my own business as a tutor for elementary-age children. I love kids, and it’s one of my side hustles to keep me…

It sounds bizarre, but it’s true — I’ve been through a long journey with my body over the course of my life. It started with relative indifference in my young childhood, to beginning to critique it in my later childhood, to full-on hating it during the majority of my teens and abusing it to compensate for that…

It might be doing more harm than good — Yesterday I was cruising on Reddit when I came across a pretty problematic post from someone. It centered around a celebrity — actress Sasha Pieterse, who is best known for her role as Alison DiLaurentis on the TV show Pretty Little Liars. This commenter had posted a picture of her…

It’s all about perspective — The one thing people rarely tell you about writing publicly is that you’re going to get a lot of haters. Yes, even if you *try* to write about unproblematic subjects. Yes, even if you write under a pen name. Yes, even if you have a small following. You will get…

I feel stupid for ever letting him back into my life. — A long time ago, when I was just a teenager, I dated this guy. He was wonderful — for the most part. He treated me like a queen, noticed my quirks and cherished them, appreciated my stubbornness and my passion for my beliefs. He knew me so well and I…

I’m getting tired — I’m going to say something I’ve never said publicly before: I’m getting tired of this platform. I don’t mean that I’m tired of writing. Or that I am tired of reading my fellow artists’ articles and perspectives. I am not tired of the layout or the structure. What I am…

Travel always transforms me — This past week, I’ve been traveling in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve never been out here before, so needless to say, it’s been an experience. In fact, I’ve barely spent any time this far West, except for a brief trip to San Francisco a few years ago. So as soon as…

The unspoken truth about the pandemic — Today I was sitting in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, when suddenly, I had a realization. I’ve been traveling this past week, and it’s taken me to a lot of unexpected, unfamiliar places — including small towns (which I’m not very good at), the wilderness, and people whose…

Sometimes it isn’t so obvious. — There are two significant truths about emotional abuse: number one, it’s (unfortunately) widespread. And number two, it’s continuously misunderstood. When most people think of abuse, they think of things like hitting, pushing, teasing. Most of these things fall under the umbrella of physical or verbal abuse. But emotional abuse —…